: Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire (Vol. 13 / 20) faisant suite à l'Histoire de la Révolution Française by Thiers Adolphe - France History Consulate and First Empire 1799-1815 FR Histoire; FR Nouveautés

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Applying Lime Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

INTRODUCTION

There is much in the action of lime in the soil that is not known, but all that we really need to know is simple and easily comprehended. The purpose of this little book is to set down the things that we need to know in order that we may make and keep our land friendly to plant life so far as lime is necessarily concerned with such an undertaking. Intelligent men like to reason matters out for themselves so far as practicable, taking the facts and testing them in their own thinking by some truth they have gained in their own experience and observation, and then their convictions stay by them and are acted upon. The whole story of the right use of lime on land is so simple and reasonable, when we stick only to the practical side, that we should easily escape the confusion of thought that seems to stand in the way of action. The experiment stations have been testing the value of lime applications to acid soils, and the government has been finding that the greater part of our farming lands is deficient in lime. Tens of thousands of farmers have confirmed the results of the stations that the application of lime is essential to profitable crop production on their farms. The confusion is due to some results of the misuse of lime before the needs of soils were understood, and to the variety of forms in which lime comes to us and the rather conflicting claims made for these various forms. It is unfortunate and unnecessary.

The soil is a great chemical laboratory, but exact knowledge of all its processes doubtless would enrich the farmer's vocabulary more than his pocketbook. We are concerned in knowing that lime's field of usefulness is broad in that it is an essential plant food and provides the active means of keeping the feeding ground of plants in sanitary condition. We want to know how it comes about that our soils are deficient in lime, and how we may determine the fact that they are deficient. We wish to know the relative values of the various forms of lime and how we may choose in the interest of our soil and our pocketbook. The time and method of application are important considerations to us. There are many details of knowledge, it is true, and yet all fit into a rational scheme that shows itself to be simple enough when the facts arrange themselves in an orderly way in our minds.

Lime cannot take the place of nitrogen, nor phosphorus, nor any other of the essential plant foods. It is not a substitute for any other essential factor in plant growth. It would be folly to try to depend upon lime as a sole source of soil fertility. On the other hand, we have learned very definitely within the last quarter of a century that it is foolish to depend upon commercial fertilizers and tillage and good seeds for full production of most crops from great areas of our farming country that have a marked lime deficiency. The obvious need of our soils is the rich organic matter that clover and grass sods could furnish, and their fundamental need is lime. Most farms cannot possibly make full returns to their owners until the land's hunger for lime has been met. The only question is that regarding the best way of meeting it.

THE LIME IN SOILS

The actual percentage is not the determining factor, a clay soil needing greater richness in this material than a loam, and a sandy soil giving a good account of itself with an even less total content of lime, but in its way the particular soil type must be well supplied by nature with lime if its trees and other vegetation bear evidences of its strength and good agricultural value.

It does not follow that every farm in such limestone valleys as the Shenandoah, Cumberland, and Lebanon, or in the great corn belt having a naturally calcareous soil, is prosperous, or that a multitude of owners of such lime-deficient areas as the belt in a portion of southern New York and northern Pennsylvania, or the sandstone and shale regions of many states, have not overmatched natural conditions with fine skill. We treat only of averages when saying that a "lime country" shows a prosperity in its farm buildings and general appearance that does not come naturally and easily to any lime-deficient territory. In the latter a man rows against the current, and if livestock farming is not employed to furnish manure, and if the manure is not supplemented by tillage and drainage to secure aeration, or if lime is not applied, the land reaches such a degree of acidity that it loses the power to yield any profit.

Mais il n'est point de combat en ce monde, quelles que soient les armes employ?es, o? l'on puisse faire du mal sans en recevoir. Napol?on n'avait pas pu refouler en Angleterre tant de produits agr?ables, ou utiles, ou n?cessaires aux peuples du continent, sans causer bien des perturbations, et il venait de provoquer en France et dans les pays voisins une crise commerciale et industrielle aussi violente, quoique moins durable heureusement, que celle qui affligeait l'Angleterre. Voici comment cette crise avait ?t? amen?e.

Les tissus de coton ayant en grande partie remplac? les tissus de chanvre et de lin, surtout depuis qu'on ?tait parvenu ? les produire par des moyens m?caniques, ?taient devenus la plus vaste des industries de l'Europe. Les manufacturiers fran?ais, ayant ? approvisionner l'ancienne et la nouvelle France et de plus le continent presque entier, avaient esp?r? des d?bouch?s immenses, et proportionn? leurs entreprises ? ces d?bouch?s suppos?s. Ils avaient sp?cul? sans mesure sur l'approvisionnement exclusif du continent, comme les Anglais sur celui des colonies anglaises, fran?aises, hollandaises et espagnoles. En Alsace, en Flandre, en Normandie, les m?tiers ? filer, ? tisser, ? imprimer le coton, s'?taient multipli?s avec une incroyable rapidit?. Les profits ?tant consid?rables, les entreprises s'?taient naturellement proportionn?es aux profits, et les avaient m?me infiniment d?pass?s. L'industrie du coton, sous toutes ses formes, n'avait pas ?t? la seule ? prendre un pareil essor; celle des draps, comptant sur l'exclusion des draps anglais, sur la possession exclusive des laines espagnoles, avait pareillement oubli? toute r?serve dans l'?tendue donn?e ? sa fabrication. L'industrie des meubles s'?tait aussi fort d?velopp?e, parce que les meubles fran?ais, dessin?s alors d'apr?s des mod?les antiques, ?taient l'objet d'une pr?dilection g?n?rale, et parce que les bois exotiques, se trouvant au nombre des produits coloniaux admis sur licences, permettaient la production ? bon march?. L'admission des cuirs en vertu de licences avait ?galement procur? une grande extension ? toutes les industries dont le cuir est la mati?re. La quincaillerie fran?aise, fort ?l?gante, mais inf?rieure alors ? celle de l'Angleterre sous le rapport des aciers, avait profit? comme les autres de l'exclusion des Anglais. De notables b?n?fices avaient encourag? et multipli? ces essais hors de toute proportion.

Ce n'?tait pas seulement vers la fabrication de ces divers produits que s'?tait dirig?e l'ardeur du moment, mais vers l'introduction des mati?res premi?res qui servaient ? les cr?er.

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